First off, it's pronounced MAD-rid.
The Metallo Gallery in Madrid, New Mexico holds an annual miniature show in the spring. All works on display are 36 inches square or less.
Two years ago I had my first art sale ever there, this painting called Do Not Duplicate:
This one, Blood Tree, didn't sell but it's still there at Metallo someplace, probably in a storage closet or under a cup of coffee or something:
Being in this show and selling a painting was a gigantic, life-changing event for me because it was the first time I'd ever felt affirmed that painting as a vocation was a viable option.
This year I'm going to submit a series of paintings of fake vampire teeth:
Why plastic vampire teeth? For one I like artifacts of pop culture. I think they're cool. But I believe they also say a great deal about our hopes and anxieties as a people. Halloween and horror I love in particular, admittedly because of nostalgia (it's the best fucking holiday and time of year and you know it), but also because I think there is something remarkable about a culture that alleviates its fears of death and dehumanization by dressing up its children - its children - as the dead and horrifying.
What a way to come to terms with our mortality. We fetishize youth culture (sexually active youth culture, anyhow) then once a year we symbolically kill and maim it. Horror movies perform the same morbid task all year long. Extraordinary.
I wish I could know how history will judge such strange behavior.
So, vampire teeth. Why not? I'll keep you posted if and when I get into the show this year. Until then, I have at least two more paintings to do.
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